Candle for St Joseph

I had written previously about the chapel of St Francis next to the busy Hynes Convention Centre in the Prudential Tower, Boston.

I have not been back to Boston since my student days there, almost 7 years ago. But somehow, when I was at the Prudential Centre, my footsteps took me almost automatically to the chapel. The first thing I saw was the statue of St Joseph. So, since my grandmother passed away on the 1st of May, just over two weeks ago, it seemed like the right thing to say a rosary for her in this serene and prayerful place and thank St Joseph for his aid in granting her a tranquil death surrounded by those she loved and who loved her.

God bless you, Grandma!

2nd Last Night in Boston

I started off this week with 3 assignments due end of this week, got a take-home exam due mid next week. I finished off one assignment on Thursday, a second one on Friday and am now 25% through the third one.

Earlier tonight we had our farewell dinner at the Harvard Faculty Club. It was a pleasant event and we received our certificates of attendance at the end. I'd been griping about the assignments all day and so one of my Indian classmates sidled up to me on the way back and asked me, "Why are you worried about outputs when you have the outcome in your hands"? Meaning, that with a certificate of attendance why did I want to bother with assignments? He then started pulling aside his shirt to show me his own certificate which he had tucked beneath. Not only was he keeping it close, it was keeping him warm as well!

Anyway, enough of procrastinating. Back to typing.

Carly Fiorina at the KSG

I've attended two talks over the past two days at KSG.

Yesterday's talk was by Richard Holbrooke, former US Asst Secretary of State and Former US ambassador to the UN. He was talking on the topic, "Fighting the War on Terror: A Short-Term Vision for a Long-Term Conflict?". It was an interesting talk - he was attacking the semantics of "War on Terror" - terror is a tactic and not any individual, who exactly is the war on? Of course he is a Democrat. Lawrence Summers (Treasury Secretary under Clinton, also former President of Harvard) was in the audience and he exchanged pleasantries with Holbrooke. And whilst we are talking about Harvard big names, I suppose I should add that last Friday Amartya Sen was walking through the KSG Courtyard.

Anyway, let me get to the true subject of my post - the talk by Carly Fiorina, which was this evening. Now I must admit I had pretty high expectations. Carly has a reputation for being a good speaker. And she has just published her book and is promoting it (she was signing copies after the event at the COOP). So I expected a few excerpts (of the more exciting points).

So the session starts off with what was a pretty fawning introduction (Carly said thank you for a very "generous" introduction), and if that was not bad enough it was long-winded as well so we cringed through this lengthy speech.

Carly focused her own comments on leadership - business is about the people, so you have to address people issues in leadership and managing change - and uttered truisms about how people are people wherever they are. She alluded to her own departure from the Board but sort of slipped around what happened. Difficult for people who weren't following the fortunes of HP or didn't skim through her book prior to the talk (which I did) to work out what was going on. I can look at it charitably and say that she didn't want to bad-mouth people in public, but I can also say that she wanted to increase the incentive for people to buy the book! And although her book is titled "Tough Choices" she didn't actually tell us about any of these choices except that it was her decision to say openly, despite the bad press it would attract, that she was fired from HP rather than that she had decided to step down.

I suppose my takeaways are as follows:

• Change - it's a slow process, especially in large organisations. Individuals don't like change - it's great in theory, but should preferrably happen to someone else. So needs patience and discipline. Changing during bad times is even worse - more difficult for people to stay the course and easier for them to lose faith in the leader.
• Importance of processes to appraise and enhance the performance of Board members.

She spoke for only about 20 minutes and then there was some Q&A. The two hosts on stage monopolised the Q&A for about half an hour. Unfortunately the fawning host asked some fawning questions. Whilst the other gentleman asked better questions, I must say the student questions were excellent! One asked Carly to respond to unfavourable reviews of her book (in The Economist and Financial Times) which questioned her leadership but she chickened out! and said that everyone is entitled to their opinion. Another asked her to talk about what she felt her weakness was and how she addressed that. She said that her weakness was that she didn't know anything about technology and therefore it was important to have people around her who were good at technology, that it is about being aware of your weakness and having the humility to acknowledge and address it. Again, I see this as a cop-out because I thought that the question pertained to a personal weakness rather than a knowledge gap. (Oh, and she didn't answer the question on whether she intended to run for public office!).

I personally respect Carly and what she has achieved and I do think (from the little I know) that she was hard done by her Board. And maybe after having high expectations it would have been a let-down in any case. So it is a bit of a pity because I do think she had an opportunity to gain supporters (esp if she wanted to run for public office) this evening and it ended up being a bit of a "poor me" session.

An afternoon with JFK

This morning, we went to a new church - Sacred Heart of Jesus, on 6th Street about 15-20 minutes walk away from our hotel. So near and we did not know about it till now!

It is a lovely church - all stark stone outside and very warm and welcoming on the inside. The wall behind the alter is painted a warm crimson colour and this contrasts with the white alter piece.

It was also a most amusing mass. First of all, it was a memorial mass for St Hedwig. Yes, St Hedwig, wife, mother, queen and saint. Who is she, you may ask. As did we. So here's a link to St Hedwig. Her statue in the church was restored by the Polish Veterans' Association and re-dedicated at the mass, and there was a relic of the Saint available for veneration after the mass. The presiding priest is a round, tubby, Friar Tuck-like priest. He has an Irishman's gift of the gab and he showed it in his lengthy, "informal" prayers of intercession. He prayed for ill members of the parish, the two young men who were coming back from Iraq, and so on and so forth. He also speaks fairly quickly - rushed through the Nicean Creed really quickly. In his sermon, he highlighted the generosity of St Hedwig - she endowed monastries and things like that. He linked this up with a request to the congregation to be generous in their offerings....

(Incidentally I have a feeling that Sacred Heart was merged with St Hedwig's Parish, which is why there were also references to how St Hedwig parishoners lost their parish).

In the afternoon, I went to the John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum. We went through the museum which is really a multi-media exhibition on JFK's Presidency. It featured a lot of his speeches - he is such a good orator. It also showed a little about his legacy, including of course the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard... It was a strangely moving visit. There was an exhibition room featuring the role of Robert Kennedy as Attorney-General - looks as though his contribution to JFK's short Presidency was substantial. The Kennedys are a truly tragic family. Anyway, I bought replica JFK campaign badges for my room mate and myself. Now I have a JFK badge and a Mao badge, haha!

Viva Italia (Part 2)

Today I did the Freedom Trail (which I will talk about more in my next post). We ended at Paul Revere's House and the Old North Church, which was also in the North End, on either side of the street we had dinner at last night. It was nice to see the North End in daylight, for the very first time. So here is the "Connah Store" - for viewing pleasure.

We also did what we left out yesterday, which was go to "Mike's Pastry" to eat 'cannoli's, which are cream/mousse filled tubes which can be chocolate coated or dipped or just plain. I've never seen cannolis before in Italy so it is either a south Italian pastry, or I did not go to enough pastry shops in Italy. Suffice to say that they are very rich and gooey and sinful. It was good on the first bite but I got a little "jelak" about two-thirds of the way through. We also had the best coffee - a cappuccino - that I have had in the US. Foamy milk-topped coffee, with cinnamon, nutmeg and cocoa sprinkled on top with a sugar-tipped stirrer. Bellissima!

Viva Italia

The World Cup came to Boston's North End the other week. Unfortunately, it was only a replica - and when the Italian fans found out they were not pleased.

The Italian identity of the North End is strong indeed. Restaurants, gelataria, and pastry shops line the streets. Above us - banners supporting an Italian-American for political office, and banners supporting the Italian football team. In the "Connah Shop", there were T-shirts supporting the World Cup Champions, and with little slogans saying "France Sucks" and "Yankees Suck". Yankees being, of course, the NY baseball team. The chap standing at the entrance to one of the restaurants also looked a little mafia-like, but I suppose that is a wicked stereotype on my part. There's also a Catholic church - St Leonard's on the street.

We were in the North End for dinner - the second time I've been here, but the first time on a Friday night and it was crowded! We went into a few restaurants but there was no place for anyone without a reservation. Finally we went into the "Florentine". We opened the menu and someone goes, "they have a Machiavelli pasta"! Need I add that we are all reading Machiavelli now for our ethics class. So two of my classmates had his pasta, and flung around a few quotations ("it is better to be feared than loved") for good measure. I just had a tagliatelle with seafood. We are not getting much else except chicken, meatballs, sausages, and vegetables at our dinner buffets so every time I go out for dinner I look for some variety.

I personally preferred Bricco, the restaurant we went to on our last outing to the North End to the Florentine. The menu was more interesting and the cooking better overall (I also thought my seafood could be a little fresher). When we went there (must be around a month ago) it was also a lot warmer. The restaurants have large windows which are opened up in warm weather - they were all closed today. Temperatures are starting to fall.

To end off an Italian post on food, it seems appropriate to say a bit about Fig's pizza. Fig's is the budget restaurant of a celebrity chef, Todd English. He is also the owner of a far more expensive and upmarket restaurant, "Olives". Fig's is a small little restaurant on Charles Street. They don't take reservations but you can call ahead to put yourself on the waiting list. So when you actually get there your waiting time is reduced. The pizza is huge! It comes on a rectangular tray (and in our case was flopping off the tray) and is put on a little stand in front of you so the pizza is elevated to just below your face. My room-mate and I had a half-and-half pizza, half figs and prosciutto and half steak and onion rings. We managed to eat about half and took the other half back. Refer my last post on where the left overs ended up.

Ciao!

Dinner Time

There are two good things about our hotel.

First, it not only provides breakfast, it provides dinner. Second, it is possible to take food upstairs to eat. So we hoard food in times of plenty and cook it in times of famine (also known as the weekends, when the dinner reception is not available).

Let me say that the dinner food is not remarkable. Except for the main dish, it is exactly the same every night:

• chips with salsa
• green salad (with vinegar and olive oil on the side, also croutons)
• mixed salad - raw califlower, broccoli, capsicum, baby carrots.
• main dish - could be meatballs, sausage with peppers, tacos, soup, baked potatoes, etc. Comes with bread or rice.
• fruit - green apples, or red apples
• chocolate cake or carrot cake.

We are plenty tired of this menu. But it is amazing how much food ends up in our rooms. So last Friday evening, when we had a pot luck dinner, it ended up something like this:

• fried vegetables I (from the buffet)
• fried vegetables II (someone bought Chinese lettuce and so this dish was actually made up of "original" ingredients)
• cucumber and green apple in vinegar (the cucumber was actually bought)
• red chicken curry (the chicken was from "fajitas night" and the baby carrots in the curry from the buffet)
• fried rice (all ingredients from the buffet)
• Fig pizza (I must admit this was from my doggie bag - went out for dinner the previous Wednesday)
• bread with cheese topping (this was freshly purchased)
• fruit salad with yoghurt dressing

The cooking was quite tasty but it was a little sad eating the same food ... albeit presented in different ways. But the company was good and my classmate hosting us had a tablecloth (!) plus classical music playing in the background (she turned her radio on loudly). So it was a lot more classy, so to speak, than our dining hall.

Architectural Reflections

The other good thing about long weekends spent in Boston is that I have time to bring my blog up to date. Yesterday, I went to mass at St Francis' in Prudential Tower, and thereafter walked around Boylston and Newbury Streets, and Copley Square.

Copley Square is the site of Trinity Church, the John Hancock building and the Boston Public Library - three distinctive pieces of architecture. Here I portray two of the three:

It costs US$5 to tour Trinity church so I didn't go in. I have never paid any admission charge to enter a church thus far and I'm not starting now. It has always been on the basis of voluntary contributions. It also strikes me as rather, ahem, electic in design. But I love the way John Hancock building reflects all the buildings around it.

Boston Public Library is made up of two buildings. The original building is classical renaissance in design and the second, a modern reflection of the old:

There is a free public tour on the BPL's art and architecture, which I went on. What a contrast to Trinity Church's exhorbitant charge for a "self-guided" tour.

What I found fascinating about the Boston Public Library was the considerable European influences - the selection of the classical renaissance style, the murals within reflecting European traditions and culture. One of the three mural series was done by a French artist and a second was the story of Sir Galahad! The third was by John Singer Sargent but I much, much prefer his Parisian paintings to the rather dour "triumph of religion" mural series in the BPL.

I walked down Newbury Street after Copley Square. This has to be one of the more charming shopping areas I've been too. Small little boutiques line the street. Shops are either half a floor up, or half a floor down (down to the basement of the building). There are many restaurants and cafes along the road and their clientele were spilling out on the pavement to enjoy the sunshine of what was really a lovely day.

And here's the photo link!

The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere

Well, yesterday was the first of the 3-day long weekend (from 7-9 Oct, with 9 Oct being Columbus Day). Many of my classmates elected to go out of town this weekend but after two successive weekends on the road and two weeks in which I rushed through my readings I thought I had better do some catching up. So I went to Lexington and Concord (pronounced "conquered") yesterday, where the American Revolution officially began.

And that is where the interesting bit about Lexington and Concord begins (at least for those people who are not US history buffs). Where was the "shot heard around the world" fired from? The two towns have differing opinions. (Incidentally it is somewhat grandiose to call it a shot fired around the world? Had as much impact as the length of Cleopatra's nose?) Yes, there was a skirmish at Lexington before the skirmish at Concord. And the minutemen and militia fought in both places (see the two minutemen statues below). But history seems to favour Concord - it was where, apparently, the order was given to stand and fight, and chase the British out of town.

Both Lexington and Concord have statues of Minutemen. Lexington's (left) is not particularly impressive. But Concord's Minuteman was sculpted by Daniel Chester French, a Concord native. He went on to sculpt John Harvard (statue in Harvard Yard) and Abe Lincoln in the Lincoln memorial. So Concord seems to have won out all the way. Other photos of Lexington and Concord are here.

The big hero of Lexington and Concord, of course, is Paul Revere. However we found out that the poem by Longfellow is not really factual. Apparently Revere made it to Lexington but not to Concord. Revere got caught on his way to Concord and the chap who made it through was one of his two companions, a doctor with a good horse. He alerted Concord to the impending arrival of the British, and the rest, as they say, is history. Except that the doctor's place in it seems to have been taken by Revere. I guess it would have spoiled the poem.

Ethics Class - Public and Private

One of my classes in KSG is this "compulsory" course for LKY Fellows, "Ethics in Public Life". One theme of the course is the tensions which arise between different types of moral and ethical obligations.

One particular class focused on the difficulty of reconciling personal morality with public life. The class read a speech by former New York Governor Mario Cuomo, who is a Catholic. Cuomo gave a speech which essentially defended his public position on abortion - why he would not move to make legislation illegal (which he cannot anyway because of the Roe vs Wade ruling) and why he even provided funds for low income women to have abortions. We have to post responses to the readings each week and here is an extract of mine:

"An interesting argument he made was that the church is interested in "principles or ends", ie the ideals rather than determining which technical solution is best suited to achieving a certain end. Whilst this is, in some sense, a convenient rationalisation (which also leaves a lot of room to manoeuvre), Governor Cuomo has also usefully highlighted the need to address problems at their root causes rather than at the symptomatic level. In the case of abortion, for example, he calls to Catholics to set a personal example by respecting the right to life and thus moving others to this point of view, rather than seeking to change the law. He has also noted that it is always
possible to work on areas of common agreement, for example programmes which help pregnant women have a "real choice" by assisting them to give birth to healthy babies, in subsidising pre-natal and in-patient care. In NY City, Governor Cuomo also introduced a programme to help teenage mothers continue with their education and acquire job-relevant skills."

Whilst I do think that this argument is, in a sense, Cuomo's rationalisation of his actions, it is also in a way a response to the many criticisms of the Church's position on AIDS prevention in Africa. The Church is not about means, but ends. The Church's solution to AIDS (abstinence) may be too idealistic, and not practical in the eyes of many. But ideals are surely expected of a religious organisation! God's ways, unfortunately, are not always man's.

Museum of Fine Arts

I went to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts (MFA) on Thurs 21 September. The MFA was holding a special exhibition, "Americans in Paris" which showcased the work of a group of American painters such as John Singer Sargent, James McNeil Whistler (of Whistler's Mother fame) etc. It was a bit of a rush because I didn't realise that the exhibition would be ending on 24 Sep (when I would be in Vermont). So I rushed over after my ethics class and rushed back before the afternoon class.

Unfortunately the ticket counter did not accept my Harvard card because it is a staff not student card (it is one of the peculiarities of our stay here) and so I only got a student discount of $2.

The exhibition itself was good. It did not just present the artworks but also gave a sense of the life of the artists in Paris and of their subjects. The painters were very much influenced by the work of the Impressionists (in particular Monet) and also by the life of the Parisians. Some of them lacked commissions and so ended up painting each other - as Bohemians, or as "flaneurs" which are these young men about town types (sort of French Bertie Woosters, I imagine). Better known ones (such as Sargent) got commissions from Americans in Paris.

One of the "big" paintings of the exhibition was "Madame X" by Sargent. I was pretty pleased to see this one because I was looking for it at the Metropolitan Museum in NY and it was not there! Apparently there is a scandalous story associated with the portrait. The sitter, Madame Pierre Gautreau, was originally portrayed with the strap of her dress falling down her shoulder. However, the Paris Establishment thought it was shocking (even though L'Art du Nu was still very much on display at the time) and Sargent's reputation as a portraitist suffered. Mdme Gautreau was actually an American and so the story is that the Parisians were attacking the painting because they didn't like this American out-Frenching the French.

Leaving the exhibition, I took a peek at the MFA main collections - specifically the Impressionists! I must say that the collection displayed was quite small but pretty select. There was one Renoir of a couple dancing - "Dance at Bougival" and a few Monets (including some waterlillies, and a portrait of his wife dressed in a kimono).

Anyway, the exhibition ticket does allow me free re-entry within 10 days but to be honest, not sure whether I want to trek all the way back so soon. It is quite a long journey from Cambridge. Partly, because I have to take the Green Line train - this is a short little train with only two carriages and which are few and far apart so the train gets crowded quickly. The Museum is also free Wednesdays after 4pm so there is really no need to rush down. Essentially, would like to see more of the American painters and the US is the best place to see them. (Just like France is the best place to see French painters and the Tate is the best for Turners!).

A Week at KSG

This has been a pretty busy week. Not sure if it is typical of all weeks at KSG, but let me try to give a sense of the intensity of work now.

First of all, we have to take 4 courses each (say A-D) and each course has 2 classes per week. In my case, one of my courses has a single class but I sat in on another class as well so that made a total of 8 classes. Classes for each course meets Mon/Wed or Tues/Thurs; I have 2 classes per day. Each class has something like 50-70 pages to read and some classes have more. So most of my time is spent reading and reading, and most of this is deep stuff which takes time. Let me give an illustration:

Monday: Course A, 1 class (+1 class sitting in): 1 case study, total of 2 + 3 readings for a total of some 100 pages worth of readings. Submit: 150 word response to the reading for the first class, half-page summary and response to readings for second class on Tuesday.

Tuesday, Courses B and C, so 2 classes : 1 + 3 readings, some 100 pages again

Wednesday, Course A and D, so 2 classes (this includes the class which meets only once a week): 4+6 readings, totalling what must be an astounding 250 pages or so. Got cold called for second class on Wednesday. Submitted para on self to lecturer for the first Wednesday class.

Thursday, Courses B and C so 2 classes: 2+ 4 readings, total of some 150 pages of which some 40 is John Rawls' Theory of Justice which is heavy going and of which I can read only 10 pages at a time.... Must submit response and summary of readings for second class.

Friday: deadline for submission of 2-page memorandum for Tues class.

Then it all starts again. How to find time for blogging!

St Francis' Chapel, Boston

Went yesterday to St Francis' Chapel, Boston, which is run by the Oblates of the Virgin Mary. It is a small chapel in Prudential Tower, Boston and reminds me of the Gower St chaplaincy chapel.

The crucifix is a replica of the San Damiano crucifix which has a special meaning for St Francis (check this site for the story, click here to see my photo of the crucifix in St Francis'). To the left is a rondo of the Madonna and child, statues of St Francis, St Joseph and St Jude are around the walls and (electric) candles burn beneath. The US is more into candles and veneration of Saints than is Singapore. It is peaceful and quite still; strong sense of prayer. The choir was just two people- the cantor and the organist who sang the second part. But I thought the simplicity of the singing suited the chapel well.

The sermon was interesting. The priest quoted (extensively) from Bishop Fulton Sheen - that Peter sought to separate Christ from his cross, i.e. the glory without the sacrifice without realising that the two were one. He then likened the cross-less Christ to western societies in which greater laxity had crept into society on the grounds of self-fulfilment; the Christ-less cross was likened to the former communist countries where rules were harsh and compassion limited. I liked these points but did think that the extensive references suggested the sermon was put together in a hurry!

Anyway, after mass we went shopping in Prudential Tower. It is very convenient with everything we need in one spot. So it looks as though (aside from its other virtues) we will be coming back to St Francis fairly frequently :-)

Whale-watching

I went whale-watching yesterday. Ok, I admit that actually this is not my photo and it was taken sometime last week and not yesterday. But my classmate got a nicer photo than I did of the whale tail and I don't see why I can't use it. Click here to see my photos. (I also have videos and if someone can tell me how to post these I'd be happy to oblige).

We had a choppy start to our whale-watching exploit. The swells were 3-4 feet high but I didn't know what that meant until we hit them. It is just like air turbulence. Fortunately, I have a pretty strong stomach so didn't feel queasy at all. We had been misled by our very smooth journey to Provincetown when half of us fell asleep on the way back.

Fortunately, the vessel stopped at our first whale quickly! We rushed out to the viewing decks to see this huge mammal blowing water through its blowhole, arching its back to the water and then taking its dive (the tail is the last thing which appears). A full grown whale is about 75 feet or so (I think) but we don't see the whole thing all at once. We also didn't really see the head that clearly. According to the commentator, the whales occasionally "breach" i.e. jump completely out of the water, but that didn't happen yesterday. What an amazing sight that must be.

When the whale resurfaces for air, it can come up somewhere different.... like the other side of the boat. That is when we scurry to the other side of the boat to see the action. After a few minutes of this, the whale disappeared and we went on to the next whale. Generally, we were going to the feeding areas for whales - where there is an intense supply of plankton for the whales. It is surely part of divine providence that the largest of mammals feeds on the smallest organisms. Much better than T-rexes eating mammals.

Altogether we saw two different species of whale (fin-backed whale and hump-backed whale). There was one exciting moment when I saw two whales swimming together, albeit some distance away. Other whale behaviours observed: bubble nets whereby the whale circles just below the water blowing water/air through its system. Also, our last whale was pretty exciting, doing "side lunges" and lifting its flipper out of the water as it circled and turned.

Highly recommended for any visitor to Boston - only the season is ending soon.

The Food Post

I must say that the eating scene in Boston is not too bad. It is quite varied, with American pizza restaurants and cafes, Italian restaurants and (surprisingly) a fair number of Asian restaurants – Thai, Indian, Vietnamese (Pho Pasteur was mentioned in an earlier post), Chinese (guess what- haven't stepped in a Chinese restaurant yet!).

There is also “Penang” in Chinatown and its sister restaurant “Rendang” just a stone’s throw away from KSG. These Asian restaurants offer good lunch deals. Rendang, for example, gives soup, appetizer, main course for US$7.50 (a little more than S$10). I had such a large serving of pork ribs today at lunch that I got a doggie back to take some back for dinner! (BTW, Rendang does quite nice chicken satay, even though the rendang flavour doesn’t quite come out of the beef rendang.).

Opposite KSG is a Thai Café, “Smile”. We went there together with the Singaporeans in the Mason Fellows programme to get to know each other. It is the same set lunch type of package. Had the chicken with cashews which could be a little more spicy, but still the good stuff.

One thing to look out for in the US is that for groups beyond a certain size, the service charge is automatically imposed (no tip) and it is a pretty hefty one too. In such instances no tip is expected, unless of course you don’t realize and tip anyway. We were caught once in NY and the Masons Fellow who paid by credit card in Smile got caught too. So it was a more expensive lunch than we expected.

I should add that we have been eating American food. The big local restaurant chain is Legal Seafood (mentioned in an earlier post). It provides the clam chowder soup for Presidential Inaugurations. The seafood is fresh (scallops were very good!) and the servings are generous. They are also trying to do a little “fusion” food. For example, they have a “Rasam Seafood Soup” which does act have the cumin seeds in it. Yum.

Finally, supermarkets. I go to Star Market, which is pretty big. There are also a number of smaller organic markets (Harvest, Whole Food). There is also a Farmer's Market next to KSG every Friday. They sell huge bunches of herbs for fairly good prices (far less than the supermarkets) - basil for US$2, cilantro for US$1.50.

We have been inviting each other over for dinner on weekends, when there is no reception provided. Have had good Indian vegetarian food (including chapatis!) and adobo chicken (Philipino). What did I cook? Tomatoes with basil, olive oil and vinegar (Italian) and broccoli and carrots in oyster sauce (at least that is quite a Singaporean dish). I look forward to more international cooking nights :-)

A New Shopping Experience

We have just finished two days of "shopping" for classes. This is a massive exercise whereby the whole student body moves from class to class for half the normal lesson time, so that we can decide upon what courses to take. Lecturers will essentially give the same introductory spiel twice, once for the first half of the lesson and again during the second half. Of course, people will attend far more shopping sessions than is necessary so as to get a better sense of what courses suit them or which lecturers suit them, to find out more about a particular programme or just because they have some free time and nothing better to do. Basically there are a few categories of courses -

• Courses taught by "big name" professors, like Ronald Heifetz (leadership), Robert Lawrence (international trade), Joseph Nye (International Relations) and so on.
• "classic" KSG courses - like the strategic management course above or "Reasoning from History" which apparently has been run ever since the beginning of KSG.
• Niche courses, like "Economics of Immigration" or "Introduction to the Non-Profit Sector".
• Skills-related courses like "Arts of Communication", "Negotiation Skills"
  

The most popular would of course be the first two. These courses are packed, with people sitting in the aisles and standing at the back. KSG students have a certain number of points they can use to bid for the courses which are oversubscribed; the trick for them is to have a good mix of courses which are popular/oversubscribed and the less popular courses which may suit their niche interests. For us, we have to get the lecturers’ permission to sit in their class which may be difficult if it goes to bidding.

As for the lecturers, they conduct the shopping sessions differently. Some talk about how they don't believe in shopping and treat the students to the first introductory class of the course. Others just treat it as a logistics session and a few try and do a bit of both. Some are very formal, and others fairly relaxed in their lecture styles. Some come in suits and others in old woolly waistcoats. One particular lecturer, for "Strategic Management for Public Purposes" looks, sounds and even uses the same phrases as my lecturer on the equivalent course in Singapore! Of course, since it is a similar course, they are using the same cases and more or less the same textbooks. So of course I am not doing this programme.

What am I looking for? One course is already selected for us (ethics). The rest – criteria would be quality of the lecturer, workload (of course), level of interest in the course content. I don’t think that the subject matter is too important but of course there should be a balance between content-type and management-type courses. Fortunately, only one of the courses I want to attend requires bidding. And I have an alternative selected in case that doesn’t work out. The only problem is the alternative is the same time as the first choice course :0

Are American students extremely vocal, do hands pop up at every opportunity? Well, they are certainly more vocal than Singaporean students but it is not impossible to get a word in. Just takes persistence and sitting in a good spot where the speaker can see you :-)

St Paul's, Cambridge

We went to mass yesterday at St Paul's on Mt Auburn Street. It is famous for its choir school, and the Boston Boys Choir. We arrived a little early and sat half way down the church. St Paul's is quite large (a bit of a barn) with a high alter and marble pillars at the front, stained glass windows down the side, a large pipe organ at the back and a smaller organ in front nearer the choir.

The mass started with a little announcement that the church had a new deacon, and the priest indicated that his wife and three children (!) were also present in the church. Hmmm. Since when did deacons have families? It must be some local practice, but it is very unusual.

The boys then came into the church, singing the entrance hymn. They were followed by the men's choir. I must say that whilst it was enjoyable, my expectations were somewhat higher. Perhaps they need to get a few more rehearsals under their belt - this was the first time the choir had sung at mass after the summer break. They did look quite sweet and charming though, walking into church two by two in their black robes with a white smock thing on top.

US mass goers differ in behaviour from Singaporeans. The ladies sitting next to me were really having a nice catching up session before mass, started smiling and waving at the choirboys/ men they knew and said hi to the priest. They also kissed and hugged this other friend of theirs on the way to communion and then after communion. Quite distracting. I must admit that these ladies were the exception rather than the norm. Everyone else appeared to be acting like normal mass goers.

Will probably go visit other churches in Boston, before coming back to St Paul's, to see what they are like.

Shopping

I suppose it is time to post on a topic which has certainly taken up a lot of my time and energy.

I didn’t really do much shopping in New York. First, I was conscious that I would need to lug my suitcase to Boston, and second, I wanted to be able to compare the offerings in the 2 cities. But there were many moments of regret at Macy’s especially as it was having a sale with 20%, 40% discounts. Macy's is gigantic - two large buildings covering a whole block - and confusing , but I was able to find the floor full of “petite” clothing. Fortunately, the one suit I tried on didn't quite fit. Century 21 offered very good prices but I found the display of merchandise more confusing and the range was of course more limited than in Macy’s. On the high end, Henri Bendel’s is a lovely shop – the Lalique glass windows are beautiful, the displays are really very attractive and the prices are out of reach! I went also to Bleecker Street whilst in Greenwich Village. It is a charming street with some craft-y shops (and a nice little bookshop, Biography Books) but also some designer outlets, such as Ralph Lauren, Intermix.

Here in Boston, I must admit that I’ve been somewhat focussed on one particular shop. The first time I went to Filene’s Basement, was half an hour before closing time. I didn’t even get round to locating Basement 2. The second time, I went with 3 males and so it ended up as a recce trip. I believe they spent more than I did J . The third time, I had a nice time and bought 3 tops, 1 jacket, a pair of shoes and a bag. The range is excellent, and I get a little thrill out of calculating how much of a discount I can get.

I went around to the other shops in Harvard Square– Harvard Coop, Crate and Barrel, Ann Taylor etc. There are some shops selling quite cute little knickknacks as well, but these are pretty pricey. Around Downtown Crossing (other than Filene's) there's a pretty big Borders. I was struck by the large offering of Manga (see picture). Reverse cultural flows going on?

Boston – First 3 days

Well, we have been here in Boston for 3 days now. Arrived on Sunday 6pm and ate at Legal Seafood for dinner. On Monday, walked around the area in the morning and had lunch at Legal Seafood (compliments of the SPP). This was followed by Trolley Tour of the Boston area by “The Professor”. Fun, but I think I need to go around a second time on foot.

Went to Chinatown yesterday evening, and ate at a Vietnamese restaurant, "Pho Pasteur". Reasonably priced, generous proportions. Gave a menu to our Vietnamese classmate and await his imprimateur. Pho Pasteur is opposite "Penang". We will go there when the craving strikes. Both restaurants are pretty crowded, with queues forming ever so often.

This morning, we had a tour of the streets and shops around Harvard Yard, and of Harvard Yard itself. The afternoon was spent in an orientation session on KSG. Harvard itself is not quite what I had envisioned. Well, partly because it is in “Cambridge”, I had a certain mental image in my mind to compare it with and of course that mental image of Cambridge, UK is completely different from Cambridge, MA. It is much younger, for a start and like Oxford, is more a "town with a university" than a "university with a town".

As for KSG, I liked the look and feel very much.
KSG is essentially four buildings around a quadrangle. There is a volleyball court in the middle; there is beer and volleyball on Friday evenings. One of the buildings has a large open forum/lobby area with theatre type seating, and discussion areas along the staircases going up all the sides of the forum. We were told that this interesting concept was developed based on one student's feedback that he had learnt the most on the steps outside the building (from his fellow students). So the forum was developed to "bring the steps inside", so to speak. It reminds me of discussions in a previous life about how "corridor conversations" brought about opportunities to reflect on the day's discussions - and hence the merits to structure such discussions into formal programmes. Perhaps this is what the SPP needs to do also for the MPM- identify and put in place structures and fora to better infuse the academic/theoretical more with the experience of practitioners.

On the train to Boston

As I type this, we are chugging northwards on the Amtrak train to Boston. We decided to take the train rather than the plane to Logan airport because a) Penn Station was really near by and so the time taken is about the same either way and b) a lot more hassle going to Newark, going through airport security and traveling from Logan to Cambridge.

Now that we are about to leave New York, the weather has cleared up. It was a beautiful morning with bright sunshine. Walked out for about 1½ hours before mass, first to the Flatirons building, then to Union Square and ending up in Washington Square. I really like this part of New York. Slightly older than downtown NY, with a really pleasant relaxed atmosphere. Few cars, probably because its Sunday. So Broadway was closed below E13th Street for a street market (it was just starting up when I got there). People were going to church, or walking their dogs. New York University (NYU) accommodations are around the Washington Square area. It looked as though many people were moving in today – brings back lots of memories for me! There are also two dog runs in one corner of Washington Square, one especially for little dogs and one (I suppose) for dogs of all sizes. Dogs and their owners interacting quite happily within the run. Both runs were maintained by the “Washington Square Dog Run Association” – that’s the one thing I find different about Americans as opposed to the British of Singaporeans – they get together, associate and do things. Of course Singapore has certain obstacles in the way - I doubt that the dog run association folk had to register with any government body!

Rushed back from my walk to check out of the hotel and go to mass. Decided some time back to go to the 11am service at St Francis of Assissi but because I spent so long walking around, it was a real rush back. But it was well worth it. I was ever so slightly late :-) but it was really a pleasant surprise to enter the church and hear a pipe organ accompanying the congregation in the entrance hymn. St Francis itself is not large but quite beautiful. It is a long church with entrances on both W31st and W32nd Streets.

A large mosaic behind the alter depicts Mary carrying the child Jesus. He smites a serpent at their feet with a spear, as St Francis and (presumably) St Clare look on at either side. One smaller mosaic on the left depicts Mary being assumed into heaven; one more on the right shows St Francis (presumably) on his deathbed.

Mass itself was fairly well attended. I was surprised when we continued kneeling throughout the whole of the Liturgy of the Eucharist (from the breaking of bread to the great “Amen” before the “Our Father”. Local tradition? At the sign of peace, there was generally warm handshakes all around (contrast the chilly reception and funny looks I get when I try to do the same at Holy Family). Just goes to show how friendly Americans are!

For more pictures of St Francis and of NY, click here.

We have now left New York proper and are in the countryside. Quite charming – just crossed over an inlet with boats tied up on each side of the river. Saw some wooden frame houses on one side of the railway track. Just passed a golf course – what a lovely day it is for a round. Most unfortunately, I believe it is raining in Boston.

Postscript: The weather was beautiful until just before Providence, Rhode Island. Blue skies, little white cottony clouds…. then dark clouds appeared on the horizon and all of a sudden the train entered a damp foggy cloud which shrouded everything from Providence to Boston. It was so bad that flights into Logan (including from NY) were delayed. So it looks as though we made the right decision to take the train. Despite the fog, Boston itself wasn't really rainy - more a light sprinkle than anything else. Didn't stop us from having dinner at Legal Seafood.